this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
134 points (95.3% liked)

Showerthoughts

29786 readers
717 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
vatlark@lemmy.world
forkball@lemmy.world
quinten@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
134
Why do we use base 60 for time and base 10 for everything else. Why has no one decided to integrate it. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by atrax@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Thought of this in the shower this morning, if anyone has an answer I'd be very interested!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

As you said there is really nothing special about 10 and you could easily redefine prefixes to whatever base you want.

In base 12 a day has 20 hours, an hour has 50 minutes and a week has 120 hours. The numbers are as arbitrary as before. Except the 0th index is always 0 in these cases.

While the origin has been explained well, a base change really doesn't solve the underlying problem with time as we define it. I don't think this has a good solution and probably doesn't need one.